‘Focus on students’ as Osoyoos sends its children back to school

Let's Celebrate

8 to 8:25 a.m.

Osoyoos, come join the celebration as we send our children back to school in their hometown.

Join the gathering on the corner of the Osoyoos Secondary School parking lot and raise your voice in greeting as we cheer students — and their parents — who never gave up.

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The state of public education in B.C.

The state of public education in B.C.

An estimated 528,689 full-time public school students will head to school this September — up about 2,900 students province-wide from last year.

Since 2000, public school enrolment has decreased about 79,000 students. Independent schools have increased their enrolment by 21,000 over the same period.

Independent schools enrolled nearly 82,000 students in 2015-16, which is approximately 13% of B.C.’s K-12 population.

This coming school year (2016-17), total funding to school districts will reach $5.10 billion – up 32% since 2000-01.

The average per-pupil funding is now an estimated $8,963, an increase of 42% since 2000-01.

The 2016 provincial budget provides $1.7 billion over three years to replace aging facilities, build more student spaces in growing communities and improve school seismic safety.

Since 2001, government has built 48 new schools, replaced 70 aging schools, expanded 186 schools and seismically upgraded 153 schools.

Class sizes in B.C. remain low and stable. The average number of students per class in 2015-16 was well below the maximum size allowed in provincial legislation.

Of the 67,107 K-12 classes in B.C. public schools last year 40% had fewer than 24 students and 58% have between 24 and 30 students.

Only 2% of classes had more than 30 students and the majority of these are classes such as band, drama and gym where it is appropriate and beneficial to have a larger number of students.

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Students in the South Okanagan join more than a half-million B.C. children and head back to class tomorrow.

For secondary students in Osoyoos, the walk, cycle or ride will still be along 62 Ave and 115 Street.

“It was a different summer for sure,” said Superintendent of Schools Bev Young about the work undertaken after the Okanagan Similkameen School District board was given the dollars it needed to keep Osoyoos Secondary School open for at least two more years.

The late-June addition to provincial funding allowed the Board to vote on the last day of classes last spring to reverse an earlier decision to close the school and send Osoyoos students to Oliver.

“As far as staffing and getting teachers where they needed to be, that all happened in July,” she said. “The residual hiring, that had to wait until August, but that’s normal.”

Both Osoyoos Secondary and South Okanagan Secondary may be playing catch-up as school gets started tomorrow, but Ms Young expects that to be short-lived.

“The schools are maybe a little bit behind the eight ball with having timetables in students’ hands — a little more behind where they usually are right now, but they will be ready the first day of school.”

The school is expecting 209 students to walk up tomorrow morning, although that could be a little higher depending on students moving to the community who have yet to register.

A handful of Osoyoos students have determined to attend classes in Oliver, she added.

“We’re focusing on students. Now that these funds are here for at least a couple of years, were moving forward and we’ll focus on that,” said Ms Young.

“We’ve got good things to look forward to in all of our schools.”

The new school year will also see changes at Osoyoos Elementary after a Good Shepherd decision to close is expected to send up to 15 students back to the public school.

That has resulted in the addition of another teacher for the school.

The district is also taking a close look at capital improvements at each of its schools after the provincial government late last month announced up to $20 million in capital improvement funding.